This week there will be a total solar eclipse starting in the Indian Ocean, crossing Indonesia then out into the Pacific, ending up North East of Hawaii. A partial eclipse will be visible longitudinally from India to Alaska and latitudinally from China to Australia. An interesting side effect of the fact that it crosses the dateline is that the eclipse starts on March 9th and ends on March 8th.
One of our favourite resources for eclipses is the HeyWhatsThat eclipse page. It depends on the Google Earth plugin, which was set to be shut down last December, but has been kept running by Google so far, and you can still view the HeyWhatThat website with Firefox. You will have to allow the plugin to run.
Another excellent resource is Xavier Jubier’s site, which has this page that has a lot of detailed information about the eclipse and local viewing conditions and this map, which shows the path of the eclipse and a number of viewing locations, including a number of cruise ships and aircraft that appear to be planning to view the eclipse.
If you don’t live in the path of the eclipse then it is possible to view it online. It will be live-streamed by Slooh, a community telescope service. However, to view it you need to sign up as a member. They are currently offering one free month’s membership, but they do seem to require a credit card.
See here for previous solar and lunar eclipses.
About Timothy Whitehead
Timothy has been using Google Earth since 2004 when it was still called Keyhole before it was renamed Google Earth in 2005 and has been a huge fan ever since. He is a programmer working for Red Wing Aerobatx and lives in Cape Town, South Africa.